Michael Ruberton , LCSW

Michael Ruberton is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over forty years of experience providing family, individual, and group counseling. He has worked with both adult and child clients across in-home, office, and institutional settings, addressing a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse for both victims and those who have committed abusive acts, as well as mood disorders. His long practice has included work with varied family systems and therapeutic contexts, bringing depth and perspective to complex presentations.

His therapeutic stance is warm and supportive, with a belief that the client should guide the pace and direction of the work. Interventions draw on a holistic, gestalt-informed viewpoint along with cognitive behavioral techniques, and he also uses motivational interviewing to help clients clarify goals and consider change. In practice he often prioritizes establishing a strong therapeutic relationship, recognizing that many clients - men in particular, as he has observed - benefit from space and support in choosing personally meaningful objectives.

Across decades of clinical work he has emphasized collaboration, clear goal-setting, and methods tailored to each person’s needs, balancing practical strategies with attention to the whole person.

Therapeutic Approaches and Online Care

Michael Ruberton integrates client-centered therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) into his practice. Client-centered therapy focuses on creating a supportive, nonjudgmental space where the individual leads the conversation and explores what matters most to them - this approach helps with self-exploration, relationship concerns, and building personal goals. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) offers practical strategies to identify and change unhelpful thought and behavior patterns, which can be useful for anxiety, mood concerns, and coping with life changes. He also uses motivational interviewing, a conversational method that helps people resolve ambivalence about change and strengthen their own motivation for action.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and the therapist works collaboratively with each person to determine which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. That collaborative process helps shape sessions and can shift over time as goals evolve.

Online therapy with video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging can make it easier to access licensed professionals from different locations and schedules. These formats offer flexibility for people balancing work, family, or mobility concerns and allow therapists and clients to maintain continuity of care when meeting in person is difficult.